


The Heart

by Squirrel_Stone



Category: Darcy Lewis (Fandom), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Awesome Darcy Lewis, Child Abuse, Darcy Lewis is the heart of the Avengers, Darcy Lewis-centric, Darcy's self preservation instincts are worse than Steve's, Domestic Avengers, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-12
Updated: 2015-04-27
Packaged: 2018-03-22 14:47:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3732871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Squirrel_Stone/pseuds/Squirrel_Stone
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Darcy Lewis is decidedly not special. She's just a girl with good timing and a better heart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Meeting the Team

She’s six when she meets her first Avenger. Clint finds her wandering around the circus and offers her a juice box and some animal crackers—the typical ‘what to do if you find a lost kid’ thing. He’d been thinking about leaving for a long time, but it was the hope of getting little kids like her back home instead of stuck in his life that kept him there.

“My mommy’s gonna be mad,” the girl sighs, looking glumly at her snack.

Clint gives the girl a reassuring smile. “It’ll be fine, kiddo,” he promises. “Kids get lost all the time here; it’s a big place. What’s your name?”

“Darcy Lewis,” the girl replies, enunciating the words carefully.

“Well, Darcy Lewis, I’m sure your mommy’s gonna be _so_ happy when she finds you,” he says. “I’m sure she’s out looking for you right now.”

Darcy lets out a noncommittal sound and sits in silence until she is found.

The mother is kind to Clint and thanks him for looking after Darcy, and he smiles and says he was just doing what anyone else would do. He turns to head back to the main tent, only to hear a loud smack. His head whips around, and he frowns to see Darcy sitting on the ground, holding her left cheek in her hand and whimpering.

He leaves that night.

* * *

 

She meets Bruce at a science fair when she’s ten. Her project goes all the way to the state level, and she proudly presents her work to the professors acting as judges. She’s managed to build a server that easily circumvents most security systems. She’s disqualified for the potential in her project to be used for nefarious means, but Dr. Bruce Banner is fascinated.

“Why did you think to make this?” he asks, staring at the device, no larger than Walkman.

Darcy only smiles at him. “Sometimes a girl just has to get away,” she says. “Hospitals can be tricky.”

Bruce’s smile turns forced, his eyes darkening with worry and just a hint of fear. Of the girl? For the girl? He doesn’t have enough information to decide.

* * *

 

When Darcy meets Natasha, she’s twelve and worried she’s been catfished. Someone had appeared online saying they were interested in buying her system, and Darcy goes through every precaution to make sure she’s not about to be arrested. The meeting is arranged for the park with plenty of witnesses, and the drop goes off without a hitch.

Natalia is impressed by the young inventor and tells her to keep an eye out for people like her. People who think little girls make good weapons. Darcy just smiles and says she knows all about protecting herself.

It’s only later when she’s looking through some of the presets on the software that Natalia figures it out. A home security system, a few local hospitals, the sheriff’s station.

For the first time in her life, Natalia calls the police.

* * *

 

Darcy meets Tony when she’s fifteen and stuck in a foster home. She’s bitter and angry and rants to the other kids about how it’s just a gimmick for good publicity, and they’re playing little orphan Annie.

Well, the younger ones are. Stark doesn’t give a damn about the older kids—not cute enough.

She gets her turn to talk to the man a little after lunch, and she goes into a tirade about how Stark Industries is ruining the environment and costing innocent people their lives.

Tony raises his hand a fraction of an inch, and he’s shocked when nails claw across his face. It’s not the angry slap of a self-righteous teenager; it’s defensive. He doesn’t figure that out until late 2008 when he does the same thing to Happy on reflex after Afghanistan.

He sets out to pay for whatever college Darcy Lewis wants to go to, only to find that his accounts have been hacked and someone has already taken the liberty of doing just that.

He’s so impressed that he sets up an expense fund for her anyway.

* * *

 

She meets Bucky Barnes—correction _, the Winter Soldier_ —because she’s a target. Eighteen, getting ready to go to college, and way too good at being where she doesn’t belong. Her summer internship with SHIELD has left her alone in a room full of computers and lab tech in the middle of the night. Her direct superior had told her to go home and get some sleep before leaving himself, but Darcy wasn’t about to go until all of her work was catalogued.

It’s one in the morning when a metal arm wraps around her throat from behind. Darcy lets out a choking sound and fumbles around for something, anything.

Her fingers wrap around one of her new toys, and she slams it into the arm. The strangled cry that comes next is not her own.

Darcy gets to her feet and turns to see a man falling to the ground, his right hand on his left shoulder. He was holding back a scream, though there was still some sound from the back of his throat.

She tases him and studies the metal arm while he’s unconscious. Apparently her sense of self-preservation had gone home for the night without her.

The arm is damaged thanks to her invention but easily repairable, and she gets to work until it’s as good as new. She doesn’t even notice that the Winter Soldier has woken up and is staring at her as she works.

“You look familiar,” he says, voice gruff from disuse. “Have I been sent to kill you before?”

Darcy jumps when she hears his voice, but she relaxes and smiles when he doesn’t attack her. “Just one of those faces,” she assures him. “So are you gonna try to kill me again? If so, I’d like to finish my work first.”

“No,” he replies quickly. He looks the brunette up and down before shaking his head. “Never said no to a mission before…”

She shrugs. “First time for everything,” she says before getting up and getting back to work.

For whatever reason, HYDRA doesn’t go after her again.

* * *

 

Darcy had just recently celebrated her 21st birthday when she meets Thor. Thor is the first of the Avengers that Darcy actually gets to know, and somewhere amongst it all, she confesses to a drunken Jane, Erik, and Thor that she was abused as a child. She figures they’ll forget it by the time they wake up.

When Thor makes pancakes the next morning, Darcy doesn’t say anything, though the puppy dog look in his eyes is, for the first time, aimed at her and not Jane. And this puppy face is more pity than love. The second Darcy gets alone with him, she kicks him in the shin and tells him not to treat her differently.

Thor promises he won’t, but after Greenwich, Darcy finds some ancient books on self-defense sitting on her desk.

* * *

 

It’s two weeks before the Battle of New York and Darcy is 22 when she meets Steve. She’s in town to talk to Tony Stark about a potential job offer (she ultimately turns him down in favor of sticking with Jane) when she sees a man wandering around the city like a tourist.

Darcy doesn’t know the city any better than he does, but he looks so pathetic that she has to go up to him and ask if he’s okay.

“I-I’m fine,” he replies. “Just… not used to the city.”

Darcy nods. “I know what you mean,” she says, casting a glance to the side. “New York is an entirely different world, but at least they have good coffee.” She flashes him a smile, and the corners of her eyes crinkle up. “I’ll buy you a cup; you look like you need it.”

It’s the kindest thing Steve’s heard since waking up.

* * *

 

Darcy meets Loki because she’s still in New York when everything goes to high hell. Throughout his scheming and planning, Loki keeps Darcy around like a pet. She’s not allowed near any electronics, nor is she permitted to speak with anyone, but Loki neither kills her nor uses the scepter on her.

It bothers her, but she never tells anyone she had even been kidnapped. She only saw a few people in passing, and if they remember her, they say nothing once the ordeal is over.

Years later after the revelation that Loki is still alive, she asks him why he didn’t use the scepter on her.

Loki gives her a strange look before a smile creeps onto his face and he shakes his head. “There was always a safeguard within the scepter,” he tells her.

“Like the arc reactor with Tony?”

“Not at all; that was mechanical interference,” he objects. “The safeguard was that the scepter cannot control anyone _truly_ pure of heart. I tried to control you but had no success.”

Darcy stares at him for a moment, wonder in her eyes.

And then the spell is broken, and she laughs, giving him a light shove. “Liar,” she claims. “I don’t know why you didn’t try to control me, but there has to be a reason.”

She leaves, and Loki stares after her as she goes. The little smile is still on his face, and he sighs.


	2. Moving In

Darcy moves into the tower just after the England fiasco. She’s excited to follow Jane and Thor on their many adventures, and the tower is just another thing on the list. Only Tony, Bruce, Clint, and Pepper are there at first; apparently Steve and Natasha are out on some mission in D.C. Neither Clint nor Bruce recognize her initially, but Tony calls her out straight away.

“Hey, Loudmouth,” he says, “what’re you doing here?”

“Following my boss,” Darcy replies simply. “She’s your new alien expert, and I take notes and fix the things she breaks.”

Tony furrows his eyebrows. “You hacked into my accounts to pay for college, and you wound interning for an astrophysicist?” he asks. “There’s even an expense fund set up for you; why are you interning?”

“Because I like what I do and I have an expense fund set up for me,” she tells him like it’s the only natural chain of events. She takes off her jacket and slings it over the back of her new office chair, pursing her lips in thought. Finally, she adds in, “Thank you for that, by the way.”

There’s a moment of silence where Tony just nods, a solemn look on his face. “Yeah, well, you deserved it,” he replies. He falls back into his jokester role. “Kid who can get past any security system and _doesn’t_ ruin people’s lives? I’m still a little bitter you didn’t take my job offer.”

Bruce looks up from his work. “Did you just say she could get past any security system?” he asks. “That sounds like one girl I met at a science fair back before… well…”

Darcy gives Bruce a little grin and waves. “Yep,” she confirms. “It’s nice to see you again, Dr. Banner.”

He hesitates before nodding. “It’s nice to see you, too.”

Quickly, Darcy realizes that communication is a problem in the tower. Tony and Bruce rarely leave the lab, Jane only leaves because Darcy bribes her or Thor drags her out, Clint and Thor are always training (usually not in the same vicinity), and Pepper works 24/7. Darcy decides to fix that.

It starts on a Saturday night, and Darcy plants herself in the common room to watch a movie. Thor tries to drag Jane up to bed from the lab, but both get distracted by the flickering screen in the common room.

“Is that _The Devil Wears Prada_?” Jane asks, pulling herself out of Thor’s gentle grip. She sits on the couch next to Darcy, and Thor follows her lead without prompting. Pepper gets off a conference call and comes in with half an hour left of the movie.

Darcy tries not to smirk when they suggest watching another movie next week.

Tony gets wrangled in by Pepper, and Bruce gets wrangled in by Tony, and Clint just sort of… shows up.

It’s slow, painful work, but as the days pass, more and more meals are being eaten together, kinder words are being spoken, and there’s a distinct sense of belonging that wasn’t there before.

Admittedly, Natasha throws off the balance at first. She’s tired and injured from fighting in D.C. and has no interest in letting her guard down. To Natasha, Darcy is still that abused child she bought dangerous equipment from, not someone to be trusted. She assumes the world turned Darcy into a wolf, just as it had with her.

For a while, Darcy is stuck. Natasha barely speaks to anyone besides Clint, and neither gender nor age is a factor. There are times when Natasha will join the team briefly, but she always retreats after a few minutes. Eventually, Darcy gets fed up and follows her back to her room, grabbing the door just before it closes.

Darcy walks into the kitchen and raids it for ingredients. She barely has enough to make cupcakes, and she puts them in the oven before walking over to the couch and sitting next to Natasha.

“Thanks for the system,” Natasha says quietly after a few minutes.

A small grin makes its way onto Darcy’s face. “Thanks for getting me out.” She tries not to cry because she thinks Natasha will think it’s a manipulation tactic, but a sob escapes her throat anyway, and she leans against the redhead for support.

Natasha stares down at the girl for a moment, her body completely stiff while Darcy’s was the exact opposite. Finally, she lets her shoulders relax, and she wraps her arms around Darcy and sings a lullaby. The girl had everyone in the damn tower wrapped around her finger, and now she has Natasha, too.

When Steve and Sam arrive with Bucky in tow, Darcy handles the situation the same way she handles all the Avengers: she gives them love.

Bucky is brought into the medical bay for treatment, and the second he lies down on the bed, he starts to panic. He swallows hard and wiggles away from the doctor on his right like he expects to be tortured.

And suddenly, he feels his metal hand being lifted and set down on something. He turns to see Darcy sitting by his bedside, her head on the bed, and his hand on top of her. Her eyes are closed and her breathing is steady, and almost instinctively, Bucky begins petting her hair. He relaxes and lets the doctor work, and if Darcy feels any pain when he tugs on her hair because a needle’s been stuck in him to draw blood, she doesn’t let it show.

Sam lets her in almost immediately, and if she can calm Bucky down, Steve is okay with her, too. He even promises to pay her back for the coffee she bought him (she won’t let him).

Loki is the first one she gets a warning about. Thor said he was coming as part of his punishment and to repent (and there was something about magic ravens???), and he wanted everyone to be prepared.

The day before Loki is supposed to arrive, Darcy sets up a room for him. Well, Tony’s contractors do the major work long beforehand, but Darcy makes the place actually look like someone lives there. She fills the bookshelves with modern and classic literature, she gives the bed green sheets with gold lining, she stocks the kitchen, and she fills his closet with things that she thinks Loki will like (she gets the sizes from JARVIS, who did a full-body scan when Loki first “visited” the tower).

Loki is actually stunned silent. Darcy considers it to be a win.


End file.
